


Seven white T-shirts

by Toinette93



Category: Queen (Band)
Genre: Drag, Friendship, Gen, Roger's A-class acting abilities, T-Shirts, The Great Pretender videoclip, very silly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2020-11-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:34:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27742345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toinette93/pseuds/Toinette93
Summary: That moment in The Great Pretender Video Clip where Roger rips Freddie's T-Shirt off. What if they had to do multiple takes?
Relationships: Freddie Mercury & Roger Taylor
Comments: 15
Kudos: 24
Collections: The Froger Week 2020





	Seven white T-shirts

It was take 4? No 5. Too many anyway. Don’t get him wrong that video clip was the most fun Roger had ever had while shooting any kind of movie. Ok, maybe some parts of Radio Gaga, but that was because of the booze hidden in the car. And I want to break free. In which he’d also been in drag. So the main take from the whole thing is, drag is fun. (Especially Brian with curlers in his hair. That had been hilarious.) The point was, he usually did not like shooting clips. Takes forever, most of it is waiting, and acting is… well. He won’t ever admit it, but, maybe not his forte. There, said it, thought it, whatever.

Now, this particular clip, with Freddie, and a bunch of over the top, absolutely charming darling, Freddie’s friends, was actually a lot of fun. Completely bonkers, and sooo many clothes to choose from and try on. Hey, he’d kind of enjoyed the whole Kensington stall thing with Freddie back in the day. Ok, maybe not the lack of heating, the poverty, the long hours, or the dubious kind of clothes they were sometimes selling, but certainly the dressing up in weird shit for the hell of it after hours.

This particular shoot was providing plenty of opportunity for trying crazy make up, doing shit with his hair without any risk of it turning green because there were professional on site, and mock-throwing himself at Freddie in the most over-acted way possible. It would hopefully have the added bonus of annoying the hell out of homophobic pieces of shit, and that was a bonus he was always ready to take. Besides, the blow was top quality, and he’d been high for most of the past few days.

This particular scene, though…

“Roger rips Freddie’s shirt off, take 6, and action.”

Ok, so the problem was, the shirt wouldn’t rip the right way, no matter what Roger did. They’d practiced a few times, no problem, but as soon as the camera went rolling and they used the special supposedly easy to tear shirts, something went wrong. In takes 1, 3 and 5 the shirt had stubbornly refused to be torn. In take 2, only part of it had gone off. In take 4, it had actually worked, but they had ended up with an extra in the shot that wasn’t supposed to be here. So they had to try again. And frankly, Roger was reaching the end of his nerves. Whoever had selected these shirts for that thing hadn’t done their job right. They were just impossible to tear.

Roger put his mind to the task, and energetically tore at the shirt. Yes, did it. Freddie jumped back, yelping in pain.

“Cut” grumbled the disgruntled director.

“Shit, Fred, I’m sorry, you ok?”

“Roger, dear, you’ve got nails.” commented Freddie. There was a touch of blood on Freddie’s chest. Apparently, while ripping out the shirt, Roger had taken some skin with it. That must have been painful. Roger winced in sympathy while also trying very hard not to laugh at Freddie’s affronted face. He looked just like Delilah did when you took her favourite seat away. Which Roger would never admit to Freddie he sometimes did just to see that annoyed face. Even their friendship could (maybe?) have its breaking point.

“All right, let’s take a break”. Said the director. “We’ll try again in half an hour. Will someone please check those stupid shirts.”

\--

“Roger rips Freddie’s shirt off, take 7, and… action.”

Freddie did not move away. This time the shirt ripped just fine with a satisfying noise.

“And cut. I think we’ve got it gentlemen”

“Finally!” Roger rolled his eyes, saying.

Looking at the torn rag, Roger noticed it was not the same model as earlier. He asked Freddie if he knew what that was all about.

“Well, dear, it turns out there had been a bit of a misunderstanding with the props people earlier. Somebody had understood we wanted unbreakable material for some sort of stunt.”

“Oh, bugger.” Roger commented. 

The rest of the shoot went without a hitch. They had one hell of a good time. But Roger would remember that shirt. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there !
> 
> Hope you enjoyed this pointless little thing. If it got a few of you to rewatch this wonderful (and very, very funny) videoclip, I'll have done my job right ;-). 
> 
> Take care out there,
> 
> Toinette out.


End file.
